Former St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael N. Cook will be known as Inmate 10258-025 beginning Wednesday when he is scheduled to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a two-year prison sentence.

Public defenders Erin Conner and Sara Rice faced a huge challenge: Their client was identified by three robbery victims, a cop caught him minutes later a block away clutching a bag of loot and he made incriminating statements to police during interrogation.

A disgraced former Illinois drug court judge at the center of a courthouse drug scandal is getting time to square away things before serving a two-year sentence on heroin and gun convictions. But exactly where Michael Cook will spend his time behind bars at his own expense remains unclear.

A retrial granted to a 55-year-old man convicted of first-degree murder during an earlier trial which was presided over by former judge Mike Cook had testimony Monday from a pawn shop owner who, even at gunpoint, refused to open a safe.

When a federal judge sentenced former St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael Cook to two years in prison on heroin possession and weapons charges on Friday, one of his defense attorneys gave Cook two thumbs up.